Assignment Paper :-22410: Paper 205A: Cultural Studies
Name :- Aarti Bhupatbhai Sarvaiya
Batch :- M.A. Sem. 3 (2022-2024)
Enrollment N/o. :- 4069206420220027
Roll N/o. :- 01
Subject Code & Paper N/o. :- 22410: Paper 205A: Cultural Studies
Email Address :- aartisarvaiya7010@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English – Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University – Bhavnagar – 364001
Date of Submission :- 1 December, 2023
'Chetan Bhagat' and 'His Market'
Introduction :-
Chetan Bhagat's marketing success lies in his keen understanding of the youth, active social media engagement, provocative statements for publicity, film collaborations, and accessible writing. His branding efforts, high-profile book launches, and focus on relatable, youth-centric themes have created a broad appeal. Despite criticism, his adaptability and ability to generate buzz have made him a prominent figure in the Indian literary market.
About Chetan Bhagat :-
Chetan Bhagat (born 22 April 1974) is an Indian author, columnist and YouTuber. He was listed in Time magazine's list of World's 100 Most Influential People in 2010. Five of his novels have been adapted into films.
His novels, "The Girl in Room 105", published in 2018, "One Arranged Murder", published in 2020 and his latest novel "400 days", published in 2021 were bestsellers.
His Notable works include , Five Point Someone, 2 States: The Story of My Marriage, The 3 Mistakes of My Life.He mostly writes his works on the Genre like,
Romance, realistic fiction, non-fiction, suspense and thriller. Bhagat's works often blend romance with social issues, and some of them have been adapted into successful Bollywood films. Apart from his writing, he is recognized for his active presence on social media and his outspoken views on various topics. Bhagat has played a significant role in shaping contemporary commercial fiction in India.
Chetan Bhagat's Marketing Style :-
Chetan Bhagat always writes about youth. In short he always motivates youth, his books teach youngsters how to live, how to get success,etc. For the marketing of his books he uses social media mostly.
We find some benefits for his books like.,
Online full page advertisement
Not a very costly books
Give a book at a time of launching if you orders it in advance
Available at least one video song on an online platform.
We can find these things in his books which attracts his readers.
A hopeful India
Chetan’s books give readers a feeling of trust and hope. We understand that part of life by which we fight what we call ‘life’. In a general public mutilated by collective sentiments there exists an ‘Ali’ in “Three Mistakes of my Life” who says, “It’s alright on the off chance that I don’t turn into a player, yet it’s not alright if I am not an Indian”. He brings the perspective of the last benchers yet gives them a topper friend and. sheds light on how both can be friends. His novels are captivating in terms of how a society isn’t doing much yet we can be the rebels and slide in the correctness and idealism in the garb of fun and frothy exchanges.
Lucid language
A lot of times his books are not considered ‘literature.’ So much so that Delhi University plugged in his book to their case study but that created a huge negative uproar amidst the section of society inside and outside of ‘Lutyens Delhi!’ This is majorly because of his lucid language. Chetan never claims to be the best author but does admit to being a ‘best selling’ one. His idea is not to be the voice of ‘Victorian English’ in India, but to ensure everyone can read and get into the habit of it. And, that’s not possible with tough language. So Chetan’s proper way of discussing the dialect takes his readers on a simple, agreeable, however captivating ride. We never get caught on account of the dialect obstruction even though we are stunned because of jars and bends in the story.
Nostalgia
Bhagat’s books bank a lot on the ‘good times’ spent either on campus or outside of it. Whether it’s the friendship in Three Mistakes of My Life and a common passion of a cricket academy or the love story in 2 States where a young couple barely in their early 20s try to convince their parents why they are a suitable match. These are almost things you would consider you might have done in your early lives and you fondly look back upon them. Sometimes, these can return to you even as an embarrassment but you brush them under the carpet as these were deeds of the past that you did under the influence of youth. Bhagat’s stories smell strongly of such tales and thus attract a lot of filmmakers to cash in on this very emotion.
Relatability
All his characters are portrayals of people you see every day. Whether it is Ali from ‘Three Mistakes of my life’ or Gopal Mishra from ‘Revolution 2020’, it feels like we have a little bit of us in all of them. That’s why these novels see a lot of people reading them and reading them fast. With a lack of time, people like it short and fast. He is not claiming to move any literary mountains here, he is very much aware of his audience. I won’t be surprised to learn that even the ones raising eyebrows at his success would secretly read his books to know what’s the big deal. And they must. Critics must find out what it is that makes all his books work whereas the more close to perfect books leave a lesser mark. That’s the analysis we should do rather than completely shun him away. Sure, he isn’t the most learned and most prolific but nobody can deny the fact that he got a lot of us back to reading which was slowly becoming a dying art.
Here are Five Things which we can learn from Chetan Bhagat for marketing :-
1. There’s no such thing as bad publicity
Bhagat goes out of his way to court attention. There is a reason he constantly picks fights with what he calls ‘the literary elite’; they are a self-serving bunch not concerned about writing for ‘the common man’, he says, and is constantly getting into debates with them on national television. He has no original ideas to share on these platforms; all he does is reiterate that India’s new English readers need simplicity and stories that make them feel good, and that he is providing it to them. But intellectual debate is not the point of his appearances at all. The point is to stay in the news and never to go out of the mainstream. If you are always in front of your potential consumers, of course the probability that they will buy your product goes up exponentially. This is Marketing 101!
2. Revenue doesn’t care if it comes from shameless self-promotion
All of Chetan Bhagat’s books have one very prominent (& jarring) common factor. He appears in all of them in the beginning, as himself, listening to the story he is going to tell. It is a cringeworthy opening set-piece that smacks of supremely lazy writing, but what it also is is a reiteration that the book the reader is holding in his hand is part of the Chetan Bhagat brand, more a proclamation of allegiance than worthy literature. In marketing, we call this real estate. If you have a place you can showcase your brand or your product, every inch of it has to be used. Chetan Bhagat is so good at this that he has literally used the product he sells, that is, his books, to sell his own brand. If that is not genius, I don’t know what is.
3. Create your own market
The Blue Ocean strategy was something that was taught to me in my MBA days. I remember thinking that it was a pretty neat concept, but then as college students are wont to do, promptly forgot about it. The first time it struck me how Chetan Bhagat had applied it, I was mesmerised. In short, the Blue Ocean strategy puts forth the idea that instead of trying to compete against an established company in a congested market, a better way to create value would be to create a new market in the first place and then, by virtue of being the only players in that space, surge ahead before anyone even thinks about catching up. Before Chetan Bhagat came into the scene, the simple language/easy to digest/cheap paperback novel did not exist, simply because no one knew that such a market existed and that it could be serviced and made heaps of money off. I wasn’t paying attention during my MBA, but Chetan Bhagat certainly was.
4. Tailor your product & communication to your audience
Chetan Bhagat knows who he is writing for. His audience is not the reader who has been reading for years and knows the kind of books he prefers or doesn’t, who already has a favourite author or authors or who can distinguish between a Mills & Boon and a Penguin Classic. Bhagat does not write for them. He writes for an aspirational middle class for whom English is a distant second language. And he makes no bones about that fact; Bhagat never claimed to be Naipaul. When you are this clear about the market you are selling to, you usually cannot go wrong. And he doesn’t. His books are not high literature, but they are perfect for the people he is selling to.
5. Go for the low-hanging fruit; grab the easy-to-acquire customers first
Though product marketers are beginning to catch on to the fact that pageviews is largely a vanity metric, there is a certain segment of the online content factories that have made this their field of expertise. And the foremost among them is of course Buzzfeed. The overwhelming majority of Buzzfeed’s content are listicles and feel-good stories that can only be described politely as great for passing the time. But there can be no argument with the fact that they work. Buzzfeed is an extremely intelligent, data driven company (run on Valley money) that knows exactly what it is doing. It is low-brow because it chooses to be, because that’s where the money is, and because it’s so easy to get that money. Chetan Bhagat understands this. India’s English book readers are a minority; in a country with so many regional languages and low literacy levels, the market for literary fiction and nonfiction in English is relatively miniscule. But there are millions of people who can read and understand simple English, and since they had never been sold books before, all Bhagat had to do was write his books and spread the word. The low-hanging fruit was his for the taking.
Conclusion :-
In conclusion, Chetan Bhagat's success as a bestselling author in India is attributed to a combination of astute marketing strategies. His understanding of the youth, active social media engagement, penchant for controversy, film collaborations, accessible writing style, and strategic branding have collectively formed a compelling formula. While his approach has garnered widespread popularity and expanded his reach, it has also sparked criticism in literary circles. Nonetheless, Bhagat's adaptability to industry changes underscores his continued relevance and influence in the dynamic landscape of Indian literature.
Word Count :- 1880
Images :-02
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